Their gifts were years in the making. Nichole Jeter Wheeler, b’98, and her husband, Jon, c’96, first discussed getting Jayhawk license plates five years ago when they moved to Montgomery, Texas, a suburb just north of Houston.

“We talked about it off and on,” Nichole says. “But we hadn’t talked about it in a couple years.”

The Wheelers were in for the ultimate surprise this past Christmas, when they decided for the first time in years to exchange gifts. A few months before the holiday Nichole ordered her husband a “KU HAWK” plate. She soon discovered, after reviewing their credit card statement a month later, that he had purchased a “LOVE KU” plate for her.

“It was just kind of funny,” says Nichole. “The one year that we actually decided to exchange gifts, we got each other KU vanity plates.”